President Trump said Monday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers could make immigration arrests at airports, but emphasized their core focus is to help ease long security lines.
“They love it because they’re able to now arrest illegals as they come into the country,” Mr. Trump said of ICE officers. “It’s very fertile territory. But that’s not why they’re there [at airports]. They’re really there to help.”
The president spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One.
Mr. Trump also floated the idea of dispatching the National Guard to airports to help TSA agents, if ICE isn’t enough to handle the chaos.
“We will also bring out the National Guard where we need it to help out at the airports,” Mr. Trump said during a roundtable to discuss crime in Memphis.
He said TSA and ICE are “working together, so far, very well.”
ICE agents arrived at several U.S. airports Monday to assist with Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages as Democrats again rejected a GOP-backed funding deal that would end a partial government shutdown and restore funding to the Department of Homeland Security.
Representatives for airports in Atlanta, New Orleans and Phoenix confirmed ICE agents were helping with security on Monday. ICE agents were also seen at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
ICE agents have been dispatched to at least 13 airports, according to a CNN report.
Lines at security checkpoints in airports across the country have spiked in recent days as several hundred TSA employees have resigned or called out sick because they have been working without pay due to the partial shutdown.
Saturday marked the day with the highest number of nationwide call-outs — more than 3,250 employees. More than 400 officers have “separated” from the agency, according to DHS.
Democrats have fumed over the idea of ICE agents handling security lines at the nation’s busiest airports. Some Democratic lawmakers have posted a tip sheet for immigrants traveling through airports while ICE is assisting TSA.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, said ICE would make an already chaotic situation worse.
“ICE agents at airports will only aggravate delays & lines — disrupting checks, interrogating travelers, dragging parents from children, detaining citizens, brutalizing families, shooting & even killing,” he wrote on social platform X.
Some Democrats have shared a video of two plainclothes men arresting a woman at San Francisco’s airport on Sunday. Bystanders witnessing the scene screamed at the two men, urging them to display their badges.
“ICE is not at airports to help TSA and reduce lines. They are there (without identification) trying to arrest people, exactly as I predicted,” Rep. Dan Goldman, New York Democrat, wrote on X.
